Bleader

Seattle-style sticky meats go Chipotle at Glaze Teriyaki

Every city has its own exportable signature-food cliches. We have our deep dish. Philly has cheesesteaks. Seattle has . . . teriyaki. But so far the ubiquity of grilled and sweetly glazed proteins in the Emerald City, a Korean-Japanese fusion born in the 70s, hasn't spread too far beyond the west coast. That's beginning to change with Glaze Teriyaki, a New York-based chain fronted by a native Seattleite, with branches in San Francisco and (soon) Madison.

Of all the infinitely variable permutations of this frequently cheap and often trashy specialty, Glaze takes the Chipotle approach, touting local ingredients (unverified), scratch cooking, and a build-your-own-plate model that includes a choice of protein, rice, and salad dressing. Among chicken breast or thigh, steak, salmon, tofu, vegetables, and pork loin there's the option of choosing a two-protein combo. The chicken-and-steak duo pictured above features almost finely chopped bits of muscle that nearly drown in the piercingly sweet, sticky, but respectably spicy teriyaki sauce. Pair that with a similarly sweet carrot-ginger dressing for the (wan, limp) greens, and no amount of brown rice is going to make this sugar bowl virtuous ($10). Lakeview somehow seems the appropriate setting for this concept, which also offers a handful of sides (edamame, shrimp shumai, shishitos, chicken wings, gyoza, et cetera) and a Jones Soda machine.